Activities for Successful Outcomes

Notes for Teachers

Wolsey House Community Primary School

What do different pedagogies look like when transferred to the classroom? This film illustrates how a different theoretical approach to RE can result in different activities and experiences for pupils.

Lesson Plan

Poetry Frame

Notes for Teachers

Sir John Cass's Foundation Primary School

Learning about and learning from approach

Reception teacher Andy Allan uses the story of Easter to build children's knowledge and understanding of important Christian beliefs (e.g. in forgiveness and in 'new life'), while helping them to develop their personal responses by connecting parts of the Easter story to their own feelings and experiences.

The lesson combines a focus on the areas of enquiry to do with beliefs, teachings and sources (A) and questions of identity, diversity and belonging (D).

The lesson does not focus so much on the question of whether the Easter story is 'true' (which would involve a more 'critical realist' approach) as on the range of emotional (or spiritual) responses to different parts of the story. As such, the lesson helps children to make connections between the 'phenomena' of religion (in this case, the Easter story) and the human/spiritual development of the child (in this case, through reflection on feelings associated with the different parts of the narrative).

Notes for Teachers

Somerville Primary School

Spiritual development approach

Teacher Karen Kirby works with a Year 5 class to help them reflect on the values of discipleship and reconciliation in Christianity as a means of building their 'emotional intelligence' and their understanding of different values and commitments in life.

The lesson combines a focus on the areas of enquiry to do with practices and lifestyles (B) and values and commitment (F).

Instead of looking at either the 'truth' of the Easter story or on the concept of resurrection (these are considered elsewhere in the RE curriculum), the lesson focuses on the concepts of discipleship and reconciliation in Christianity.

Through a range of discussion and drama activities, pupils begin to understand the importance of such values as reconciliation and non-selfishness. They make connections between the emotions felt by the disciples during Holy Week and the way their own emotions might change as they experience different events in their own lives. They develop their emotional word-power and they reflect upon the practice of discipleship as an aid to conflict resolution.

In effect, pupils develop 'spiritually' in the sense that they see how emotions connected to conflict situations can be turned around with effective 'peace-making' interventions.